The feverish anxiety into which the whole city of Delhi and the
country at large had been plunged was terminated when Gandhiji broke
his fast at Birla House, New Delhi, today at 12-45 p.m. with due
solemnity. Earlier in the day, representatives of all the important
groups and organizations in the city, including representatives of
the refugees and from the three worst affected parts of the city,
namely, Karol Bagh, Sabzi Mandi and Paharganj, had assembled under
the chairmanship of Dr. Rajendra Prasad at the latter's residence
and put their signatures to a seven-point declaration covering the
conditions laid down by Gandhiji for breaking his fast. The document
was recorded in both the Persian and Devanagari scripts at
Gandhiji's special insistence. At the meeting were also present
Mau­lana Azad Saheb and Major General Shah Nawazkhan. Delhi Muslims
were represented by Maulanas Hifzur Rahman and Ahmed Saeed of the
Jamiat-ul-Ulema and Maulana Habibur-Rahman. Goswami Shri Ganesh
Datta, Shri Basantlal and Shri Narain Das represented the Rashtriya
Sevak Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha. There were too the
representatives of the various Sikh organi­zations. They then all
repaired (numbering over 100) to Birla House, where they assembled
in Gandhiji's room, to request him to break the fast. Maulana Saheb
and Pandit Jawaharlalji had arrived there already and Janab Zahid
Hussain Saheb, the Pakistan's High Commissioner, came in a little
later.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad opened the proceedings by narrating to Gandhiji
how they had all assembled on the previous night at the former's
residence and after full discussion decided to sign the declaration
then and there. But as representatives of some organizations were
not present in that meeting, they felt that they should not go to
Gandhiji immediately with the signed document hut wait till the
remaining signatures were obtained. They had accordingly met again
in the morning when all those who were absent during the previous
night's meeting came and gave their signatures. It was found in the
course of the morning meeting, Dr. Rajendra Prasad reported, that
even those who had some lingering doubts on the previous night were
now confident that they could ask Gandhiji with a full sense of
their responsibility to break the fast. As the President of the
Congress, Dr. Rajendra Prasad said that he had signed the document
in view of the gua­rantee which they had all jointly and severally
given. Janab Khurshid, the Chief Commissioner, and Shri Randhawa,
Deputy Commissioner of Delhi, who were present, had signed the
document on behalf of the administration. It had been decided to set
up a number of committees to implement the pledge. Dr. Rajendra
Prasad hoped that Gandhiji would now terminate his fast.
Shri Deshabandhu Gupta, speaking next, described some touching
scenes of fraternization between the Hindus and Muslims which he had
witnessed when a procession of about 150 Muslims was taken out that
morning in Sabzi Mandi and was received with ovation and offered
fruit and refreshments by the Hindu inhabitants of that locality.
Gandhiji replying said that what they had told him had touched him
deeply. They had given him all that he had asked for. But if their
words meant that they held themselves responsible for communal peace
in Delhi only and what happened in other places was no concern of
theirs, then their guarantee was nothing worth and he would feel and
they too would one day realize that it was a great blunder on his
part to have given up his fast. As an illustration he referred to
the report of the happenings in Allahabad that had appeared in the
Press. Represen­tatives of both the R.S.S. and the Hindu Mahasabha
were among the signatories to the seven-point declaration. If they
were sincere in their professions, surely, they could not be
indifferent to outbreaks of madness in places other than Delhi. It
would be a fraud upon God if they did so. Delhi was the heart of the
Indian Dominion and they (the representatives gathered there) were
the cream of Delhi. If they could not make the whole of India
realize that the Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims were all brothers, it
would bode ill for the future of both the Dominions. What would
happen to Hindustan if they quarrelled with one another?
Here Gandhiji broke down owing to overwhelming feeling as he
explained on resumption. What he had said was repeated aloud by one
or two friends sitting near him.
Resuming his remarks after the interval, Gandhiji again appealed to
them to search well their hearts so that they might not take any
step which they would have to regret afterwards. The occasion
demanded of them bravery of the highest order. They should clearly
realize the imp­lications of their pledge. It was nothing less than
that what they had achieved in Delhi had to be realized in the whole
of India. That did not mean that the ideal could be realized in a
day. But it did mean that whilst in the past they had turned their
face towards Satan, they had now resolved to turn it Godward. If, in
their hearts, they did not accept what he had placed before them or
if they had made up their minds that it was beyond them, they should
plainly tell him so.
There could be nothing more wrong on their part, continued Gandhiji,
than to hold that Hindustan belonged only to the Hindus and the
Muslims could have no place in it, or on the reverse that Pakistan
belonged to the Mus­lims only and the Hindus and Sikhs could have no
place in it. He wanted the refugees to understand that if they set
things right in Delhi, as he had suggested, that was the only way to
set things right in Pakistan too. He reminded them that he was not a
man to shirk another fast, should he afterwards discover that he had
been deceived or had deceived himself into breaking it prematurely.
They should, therefore, act with circumspection and cent percent
sincerity. He invited the representatives of Mussalmans who had been
meeting him frequently to tell him whether they were satisfied that
the conditions in Delhi were now such as to warrant breaking the
fast on his part.
Addressing next a few words to the Muslims especia­lly, he asked if
there was any ground for the suspicion that the Muslims did not
regard India as their country. They lived in it in the midst of the
Hindus because they could not help it, but one day they had to part
company. He hoped that that suspicion was baseless. Similarly, if
there was a Hindu who regarded the Muslims as yavanas or
asuras incapable of realizing God, he was guilty of the worst
blasphemy, which could possibly have no room in the covenant v/hich
they had signed.
He then referred to a book which a Muslim friend had lovingly
presented him at Patna. In that book the writer had propounded that
according to the Koran, kaffirs (i.e. Hindus) were worse than
poisonous reptiles and fit only to be exterminated. Not only was
there no sin in using every conceivable variety of force or fraud to
compass that end, it was meritorious in the eyes of God. He was sure
that no God-fearing Muslims could subscribe to or even secretly
sympathize with that creed. Some dubbed Hindus as image worshippers,
proceeded Gandhiji. But it was not the stone image which they
worshipped but the God within, without whom not a particle of matter
existed. If a devotee saw God in an image, it was not a thing for
anyone to cavil at. Granting that his belief was a delusion, it
deluded nobody but himself. It required mag­nanimity and breadth of
outlook to understand and appreciate the religious convictions and
practices of others. It was the same thing if they considered the
Koran or the Granth Saheb as God.
Concluding, Gandhiji remarked that if they fully accepted the
implications of their pledge, they should release him from Delhi so
that he might be free to go to Pakistan. In his absence they should
welcome such refugees from Pakistan as might want to return to their
homes. The latter were none too happy over there just as the Hin­dus
in the Indian Dominion were none too happy to lose large numbers of
Muslim artisans and craftsmen. It was not easy to reproduce in a day
traditional skill that had been acquired through generations. It was
a loss on both sides which no sane people would like willingly to
perpetuate.
Gandhiji ended by once more asking them to turn the searchlight
inward and not to deceive themselves or others by asking him to give
up his fast, if what he had said did not find a responsive echo in
their hearts.
Maulana Saheb Abul Kalam Azad, being next asked to say something,
remarked that so far as the guarantee of communal peace was
concerned it could be given only by the representatives of the
citizens of Delhi. He, however, did not want to leave unchallenged
the Muslim friends' observation to which Gandhiji had referred, as
it referred to the teachings of Islam. He had no hesitation in
characterizing it as a libel on Islam. He quoted a verse from the'
Koran which was to the effect that all mankind are brethren,
irrespective of their race or religion. The remarks to which
Gandhiji had referred were abhorrent to the teachings of Islam. They
were only indicative of the insanity that had of late, seized some
sections of the people.
He was followed by Maulana Hifzur Rahman Saheb, who categorically
repudiated the allegation that his co­religionists did not regard
India as their country which claimed their full and undivided
allegiance, but only as a place where they were forced to live by
expediency and by the compulsion of circumstances. Their thirty
years' unbroken record of service of the nationalist cause gave the
lie to that charge. They regarded it as an insult to their
nationalism to be asked to reiterate their loyalty to India. He
recalled how during the recent disturbances at one stage their
Congress friends and colleagues had offered to provide a safe asylum
to them outside Delhi as they were not sure that they would be able
to give them adequate protection in Delhi. But they had declined
that offer and had preferred to stay in and go about the city
without any police escort, trusting to God alone. Speaking of the
Jamiat, he could say that its members were staunch followers of
Maulana Azad Saheb and the Congress. Those who had left for Pakistan
had done so out of fear for their lives and worse. They all wanted
to remain in India as citizens of India with self-respect and honour,
in their own right, not on the mercy or sufferance of any­body. He
asserted that if India were to be attacked they would all defend it
to the last man as their country. They had plainly said on more than
one occasion that those who were not prepared to do so should leave
India and go to Pakistan.
Describing next the change that had come over the city as a result
of Gandhiji's fast, he said that they regarded it as a happy augury
and a presage of things to come. They were satisfied that the tide
had definitely turned and was now fast flowing in the direction of
communal harmony and peace when previously bitterness and hatred ran
riot. Now that the administration had underwritten the assurance
given by the representatives of the people, they were satisfied that
they would be implemented, though it might take some time. He,
therefore, joined Dr. Rajendra Prasad in his appeal that Gandhiji
should break the fast.
After Shri Ganesh Datt had on behalf of the Hindu Mahasabha and the
R.S.S. reiterated that appeal, Janab Zahid Hussain Saheb addressed a
few words to Gandhiji. He was there, he said, to convey to Gandhiji
how deeply concerned the people in Pakistan were about him and how
they were daily inundating him with anxious inquiries about his (Gandhiji's)
health. It was their heart's desire that circumstances might soon
prevail which would enable him to break the fast. If there was
anything that he would fittingly do towards that end he was ready
and so were the people of Pakistan.
Janab Zahid Hussain Saheb was followed by Janab Khurshid and Shri
Randhawa who on behalf of the ad­ministration reiterated the
assurance that all the conditions mentioned in the citizens' pledge
would be duly implemented, and no effort would be spared to restore
to the Indian capital its glorious old tradition of communal harmony
and peace.
Sardar Harbans Singh endorsed on behalf of the Sikhs what his
predecessors had said. Gandhiji then expressed his readiness to
break the fast, which was done with the usual ceremony of prayer at
which texts from the
Japanese, Muslim and Parsi scriptures were recited followed by the
mantra:

"Lead me from untruth to truth,
From darkness to light,
From death to immortality."

A Hindustani hymn and the Christian hymn: "When I survey the
wondrous cross", were then sung by the girl inmates of the Ashram
followed by Ramadhun. A glass of fruit juice was handed by Maulana
Saheb and Gandhiji broke the fast after fruit was distributed to and
partaken by all present.
New Delhi, 18-1-'48